Diphalane multimillion mall to revamp Palapye
Lindiwe Mozola | Friday February 24, 2017 16:53
According to the project’s quantity surveyor, Nyasha Magwaza, the mall which is standing at 68% progress and expected to be completed in July, will have around 50 different shops. Residents here frequently travel to as far as Francistown and Gaborone for shopping due to limited malls and shops in the village.
“This mall is going to be the pride of Palapye. It will be a one-stop service as it will provide choice-assorted shops that are from clothing, food and many others. Some of the distinctive features include the first ever drive through Nandos in Botswana, three humongous sky lights, six metres long by three meters high big screen for advertisements,” he said.
He further said that some of the shops will include Shoprite, Ackermans, Banks, Multichoice, Mr. Price and many others.
Magwaza noted that they are confident that the mall will be finished in July although they are a bit behind schedule due to matters beyond their control such as the current heavy rains.
He also said that some of the challenges they encounter are power cuts, low pressure of water supply from the grey water, which delays the project further as well as construction annual shut down.
The project has employed 400 Batswana with few foreigners as an adherence to Palapye Member of Parliament (MP) Master Goya’s plea during the project groundbreaking last year of absorbing more locals in the project particularly residents.
Goya was quoted saying: “It is said that 400 to 600 people will be hired during the construction, which is a milestone in job creation, we therefore do appeal that only Palapye residents are employed.
In the past we have experienced companies doing some developments in Palapye sidelining residents and bringing on board expatriates”.
Nyasha said indeed the Benchicks Investment, the owner of the mall, honoured the MP’s plea, as 90% of employees are locals with about six foreigners only at supervision level.